arguments against starting a vinyl collection?

The biggest arguement for staying away is that vinyl is just another 'thing' to get into, "it's so hip"... So, first off: do not get into vinyl unless: you can't stand living with your system since you heard a friends who has all analogue. Or: You just inherited 30,000 LPs.. all the best, all like new. Or: You don't care that it is just a fad, and that soon enough you will dump it, as hundred of thousands of others dumped LP playback (when CD first came out) because CD is just too damn easy, compared to the hassles of LP. And after selling all that crap you bought to play and use vinyl, you can then feel good that you have finally contributed to all the vinyl lovers backlog of used stuff on the market...
If you feel the need to ask, it is not for you.
(Personally I dumped LP for CD. went 20 years no LP. Then started buying ultra-cheap mountains of LPs 14,000 or so.
Then I had to MOVE! and dumped (right tossed out!)a LOT!
Now I have 6,000 and two cheap midfi TTs, two pre pres, and use both LP and CD whenever I feel like it.)
(My main concern with PLAYING all those LPs is cleaning them before use (at least the first time)

My two cents worth...
Based on your vast collection of cd's and sacd's, if you REALLY listen to all your collection from a to z starting tomorrow, there's a good chance you'll be dead or at least so old as to barely hear ANYTHING long before you play your "new" medium!

My suggestion? Scrap your present digital set-up and get a new digital front end for about half of what you spent, then take the monies from your sale and invest in analog! Table, arm and cartridge of surprising quality can be had for this sum and you will have plenty left over for lp's!
a. your cd quality will still be 80 to 90% of your emm labs gear and
b. you will hear the truth and musicality that ONLY a MUSIC, not storage keyed medium can deliver...
BE BOLD!

So Genesis168 for 1500 bucks what would you recommend? I have been kinda looking at Linn Lp12's when they come up for sale.

Chuck

Karmapolice

My family were crack session men in LA and I have been in live touring space for 30 plus years, including Radiohead. Here is my two cents:

There are three things that matter, the original recording sessions, the mastering and mixing, and the final format ("pressing" or CD).

Vinyl does a really good job of recreating the original dynamics of the recording session. When this is spot on, it is really a beautiful thing to hear. I grew up around my family's playing and know what they sound like from 50 years of memory and vinyl approximates this better than digital.

Mastering can introduce a whole set of problems when introduced as part of the mixdown. Tonalities can be adjusted, good or bad, dynamics compressed or expanded, and all aspects of frequencies can be sonically cropped, boosted or altered. Both vinyl and CDs can amplify any shortcomings here, so it is a toss-up of sorts. Also, the term master tape is grossly overused--there are usually multiple tapes out there for all sessions and your vinyl and CD was probably not made from the original master tape but a second or third generation as production was sourced from multiple production facilities. This is why Japanese, British and US pressings can sound radically different around the same artist.

CDs are a perfectly rendered version of the source tape. Garbage in/garbage out--some CDs can vary by tape source.

Vinyl can suffer from the pressing process--the quality and make of the vinyl pellet (there were 13 types of vinyl in its height--only four are still made today), the pressing time in the press, where it stands in the production run, and humidity and temperature of the plant. You could listen to 25 records and hear minute but significant differences in the vinyl. Only 10% sound perfectly correct but when they do, they will slay all other formats. (PS: it has taken me 30 years to collect pristine albums of my family's work).

Czbbcl, For starters, the Technics 12xx would be a good choice. You can get them as cheap as $399??? Do a search on the forums. It's a solid table FWIW. You can do a lot worse for a lot more $. Get an Audio Technica/Denon cartridge and a PS audio GCPH/EAR 834 phono and you have a solid vinyl playback system. This will take you a long way. I am in no way saying that this some multi kilobuck killer but it will show you what analog is capable of for so little $.

I am only recommending the Technics as an example because it is easy to setup, use, sound great and will not take the fun off spinning records.

If you decide analog is not for you, sell it and get your $ back. And if think analog for you, then you can lay down your life savings.